Neighbours
by VegebulsAreOneOfYourFive-a-day
Summary: Bulma and Vegeta meet as children. It's not love at first sight. Not even like at first sight.


At the tender age of seven, Bulma Briefs was getting a fresh start in life along with her mother, Panchy Briefs. The young girl had climbed out of the chauffeur driven car they had taken, and now stood on the pavement rocking back and forth on her plimsoll clad feet like she did whenever she felt nervous.

Bulma tilted her head to the side inquisitively as she took in the property which would be their new home. Staring back at her was a modestly sized, two-storey, detached house complete with garage and a spacious porch. It was – nice. Transfixed by the pale yellow structure, Bulma took a step closer, moving into the middle of the walkway; she was eager to see inside.

Bulma had never lived in what she would consider such a small house before. Back in West City she had lived in the sprawling expanse of the Capsule Corp compound, but since her father had passed away her mother had struggled with being in a place in which she had shared so many happy memories with her husband. So Mrs. Briefs had decided to move out of the compound, which also doubled as the company headquarters, and into a suburban detached property in Upper West City.

So curious about the small property, Bulma did not realise that she was currently obstructing a high-speed race.

"Get out the way!" rudely called a voice.

The yell was accompanied by a strange humming sound which got louder and louder as it got closer. Bulma pulled her eyes away from her new home just in time to see two boys racing one another along the pavement on their bikes at breakneck speed. Bulma jumped back just as they reached her, one of the boy's narrowly missing running over her toes. She watched them as they both skidded to a stop outside the house next door, the one who nearly ran her over losing the race by a mere second. Both boys couldn't have been much older than her.

Bulma watched as the boy who had come close to flattening her toes leant down and pulled up the leg of his baggy jeans. He pulled something crumpled out of his sock and handed it to his friend. Once the item had been exchanged, the other boy unfolded it and held it up to the light with a smile on his face. Bulma could now see that it was a creased zeni note.

Bulma blanched as the boy who had lost glared over his shoulder in her direction. His eyes were darker than any she had seen before and his stare made her feel uneasy. She began to rock on the balls of her feet again, never once taking her eyes off of the dark-eyed boy. She gasped when he removed one of his hands from his handlebars and a tanned middle finger was extended and directed at her.

She didn't know how to respond to the action, so she did the first thing that came to mind; she stuck her tongue out at him. It didn't have the desired effect and his other hand came up to join the other, both middle fingers now directed at her. But the boy quickly lowered his offending fingers when a woman appeared at the end of the driveway and clipped him round the back of his head, causing him to groan and his friend to make a hasty retreat, riding off down the street.

The lady was tanned like the boy, and Bulma wondered if she was his mum. She stepped around him and shot Bulma a pleasant smile before turning her attention to her mother, who had been directing the driver on where to take their suitcases once he had unloaded them from the boot of the car.

"You must be the new neighbours?" the woman asked with a slight accent Bulma couldn't place.

Bulma watched her mum remove the large sunglasses - which she thought made her look like a bug - from her face and push them up so that they sat on top of her voluminous, blonde curls.

"We are. I'm Panchy and this is my daughter, Bulma", Panchy responded as she extended her hand out towards the woman who was obviously their new neighbour.

Reaching her own hand out and grasping the one on offer she shook it as she introduced herself, "Kumara. And that is my son, Vegeta", she said with a gesture of her head in the boy's direction behind her.

Panchy lifted the hand she had used to shake Kumara's and gave Vegeta a wave, "Nice to meet you, Vegeta", she said earning a quick bob of the boy's head in acknowledgement.

Both Panchy and Bulma jumped when Kumara turned to her son and snapped, "Get over here and say hello to our new neighbours properly".

The boy rolled his dark eyes and dismounted his bike, laying it down gently on the ground before he headed over to stand at his mother's side.

"Hello", he ground out like it was a chore and crossed his arms over his chest.

Giving him a disapproving sideways glance, Kumara shook her head and returned her attention to Panchy who was currently handing the driver the front door key so he could take their possessions inside. "So you're Panchy Briefs?" she asked intent on finding out everything about the newcomer.

Vegeta watched his mother drill the new neighbour for information; no doubt she would be on the phone to his aunt as soon as she was back in the house, gossiping about the new family in the neighbourhood. Turning his attention to the little girl who stood in front of him, Vegeta curled his lip. She was slightly younger than him, but not by much. He ran his eyes over the blue pigtails hanging from either side of her head; there wasn't a single strand out of place. And then he moved onto her dress. It was floral patterned, made up of an array of pastel colours, and spotless. There wasn't even a wrinkle in the material, unlike his clothing which was oversized and dirty from playing outside all day.

"You owe me one thousand zeni", was the first thing to leave his mouth, causing Bulma's brow to crease. "You made me lose the race".

"I didn't mean to", Bulma replied innocently, her fingers coming up to twiddle with the tip of one of her plaits.

"You still owe me", Vegeta responded with a shrug and an impassive expression.

"Oh, OK", Bulma said looking down at her feet. She was beginning to suspect her new neighbour didn't like her very much. Glancing up through her lashes, Bulma watched as Vegeta looked around disinterested in the situation as he waited for his mother to finish her interrogation. The two women had now moved up the path towards the house, Kumara making a comment about how light the Briefs had travelled as she gestured to the two suitcases the driver was carrying.

Bulma thought Vegeta was mean looking. He stood about a head taller than her and seemed to have a permanent scowl on his face for someone so young. He wore his clothes baggy and the knee of his jeans was ripped. He also had smears of what looked like grease on the denim covering his thighs like he had wiped his hands there after tinkering with something oily. Starting to feel awkward standing in silence, Bulma spoke up.

"Why does your bike make a funny sound?" she asked. This perked Vegeta up slightly and he turned his back on her as he headed over to his bike. Bulma thought he was ignoring her question, but quickly realised he had meant for her to follow him over to the where the bike still lay on the ground.

She watched as Vegeta picked it up and turned it so that she could see the back wheel. Lodged in the spokes was a playing card. He pushed the bike forward so that when the wheel made a full turn it admitted a clicking noise.

"It sounds like a motorcycle when you're going really fast", Bulma said. She had no idea why he would want to make his bike sound like a motorcycle, but then she had never owned a bike so what did she know about them? She also noticed the words 'Prince Vegeta' were expertly painted onto the frame of his bike in electric purple to stand out against the black paint. The letters were in a graffiti font and were easy to read.

"I like your bike, the purple writing is really pretty". Bulma offered a strained smile.

Vegeta puffed out his chest and felt pride that his ride was being admired. 'Pretty' wasn't a word he would have used to describe anything, but she was a girl, and girls liked to use stupid words, so he let it slide.

"I also like your name. It's a nice name", Bulma added as she lowered her eyes and rocked on her feet. It was an action which Vegeta realised she did quite often.

He didn't know how to respond to her compliment, he could just say thanks, but he wasn't use to people being nice to him unless they wanted something in return.

Seeing his mum approaching Vegeta looked at Bulma and blurted out, "Your dress is ugly and you sound dumb when you talk", before pushing his bike onto his drive and heading towards the garage.

Bulma didn't know what she had said to upset Vegeta, but now she was definitely sure that he didn't like her. She heard her mother call her from where she stood on their new porch and turned away from Vegeta's house to return to her own. She smiled at Kumara as she passed her, and bounded up the three steps to her porch. She had been eager to see the inside of her new home earlier, but now she wasn't so sure she wanted to live here anymore if it meant she would run into Vegeta again.


End file.
